Farim fire, 3 March 2026 Farim
The fire started on 3 March 2026 in Farim, Guinea-Bissau, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,806 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 3th largest in Oio since 2016 (of 58 with a page). Number 2 in Guinea-Bissau in 2026, of 75.
The power measured by the satellite is low (21.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,806ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 3 Mar 2026 – 15 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sectors
- Started on
- 3 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 72
- in a single hotspot: 21 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 462MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 88 ha in 2016, 80 ha in 2019, 890 ha in 2021, 619 ha in 2022, 867 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,072 ha that had burned before.
- 890 ha Farim fire, February 2021 1,017 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 867 ha Farim fire, February 2025 1,802 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 619 ha Farim fire, March 2022 1,047 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 88 ha Farim fire, March 2016 1,242 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 80 ha Farim fire, February 2019 2,637 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Farim where it started3,829 ha reached on 3 Mar2.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Mar | 35.6 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Mar | 35.3 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Mar | 37.2 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Mar | 38.1 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 7 Mar | 38.3 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Mar | 39.3 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 9 Mar | 40.8 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 10 Mar | 40.5 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 11 Mar | 39.7 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 12 Mar | 40.4 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 13 Mar | 39.6 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Mar | 39.2 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 15 Mar | 39.7 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 Mar after | 38.5 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 17 Mar after | 37.3 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Mar after | 36.5 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 19 Mar after | 37.0 °C | 28 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 20 Mar after | 37.1 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 21 Mar after | 36.9 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Mar after | 37.3 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 23 Mar after | 34.1 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 24 Mar after | 36.5 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 25 Mar after | 35.9 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 3 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 75 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 65: 4.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 72Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Farim fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 March 2026 to 15 March 2026 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 March 2026 to 12 March 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,806 hectares (38.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Farim (3,829 ha, 2.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea-Bissau (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.